Is that a common thing in the restaurant business? To get an entire pig carcass and break it down yourselves?

Candlejack

01-26-2012, 07:33 PM

Cool picture.

Is that a common thing in the restaurant business? To get an entire pig carcass and break it down yourselves?

Depends on the place. We have suckling-pig on our meny, and that is of course whole.

A full grown pig won't likely be found in a restaurant. It would take too much time to cut it down yourself to make it worth it.

This is just my experiance this far.. i haven't gotten that much experiance yet. But it'll come with time.

WildBoar

01-26-2012, 07:41 PM

Hey -- save those piggies for Sunday! :nunchucks:

tkern

01-29-2012, 01:22 AM

Yeah, you'll be eating all sorts of parts from those guys.

Jim

01-29-2012, 01:35 AM

MMMMmm Pork!

WildBoar

01-29-2012, 02:22 PM

Yeah, you'll be eating all sorts of parts from those guys.
:spin chair:

Leah and I are really looking forward to this! it will be our first dinner at a restaurant with a KKF member working his/ her magic back in the kitchen.

Miles

01-29-2012, 03:27 PM

Very nice. Looks like you've got some knife time in front of you. What's the plan for them?

WildBoar

01-30-2012, 08:42 PM

What an unbelievable meal! I frankly did not have it in me last night to post about it -- mainly because my stomach was hanging out so far my hands could not reach the keyboard. It is nearly 24 hours later, and I am still stuffed!

The restaurant rolled out the red carpet for us, and the staff was extremely attentive and engaging. Travis came out from the kitchen and visited us quite a few times, and took the time to tell us about each dish and preparation, and to field our questions afterwards. He and the staff made sure we did not go hungry -- in fact, we probably ate more last night then was consumed in the entire State of Rhode Island.

The 2-1/2 + hour dining adventure was capped off with a visit to the kitchen, where we were able to check out all the wonderful things going on in the walk-in fridge. You want pickles -- well they really know how to make them here. Okra, zucchini, peppers, onions, carrots, mustard seeds, and who knows what else. And sausage rolls, marinating chicken and marinating ribs as far as the eye could see.

Travis and his team are really proud of their food -- rightly so -- and live the farm-to-table, locally-sourced and snout-to-tail credos in a manner my wife and I have not seen executed so thoroughly and deliciously in our long history with DC area restaurants. And they do it without forcing those buzzwords down your throat the way many establishments seem to do these days. In fact, my wife and I went to a snout-to-tail dinner with the local Slow Foods chapter last summer, and all of the courses came only from the ‘normal’ parts of the pig (shoulder, loin, belly and ribs only). That was not the case at all last night, as Travis and fellow cooks and chefs made several charcuterie preparations using ‘other’ parts of the whole pigs they butchered themselves in the restaurant. They even threw in some beef tongue for good measure. The world would be a much better place if all restaurants followed their example. (well, it would at least be a much fatter place! And tastier!)

For any of you KKF members traveling to DC, I highly recommend you send Travis a PM if you’ll have a chance to eat dinner downtown one night - you will not regret it. Oh, and copy me too, as my wife and I would hate for you to have to eat all alone in a strange city…

Travis, thank you again for your hospitality. It was truly a memorable evening!

And if a separate thread appears on KKF containing an essay about a dinner my wife and I had recently, well it’s probably just a coincidence.

SpikeC

01-30-2012, 09:18 PM

Is there a "green with envy" emoto around here somewhere?

tkern

01-30-2012, 10:04 PM

You're very welcome. It was great to have you and your wife in. Cooking for you two who really enjoy food is the reason why I do this. I probably had as much fun as you.